Steve Bisson/Savannah Morning News Sidney Wells Logan, 9, reads a book about marsh rabbit written by a classmate at Hesse Elementary School.

The bright shining faces of 21,151 elementary and K-8 students have been assigned to their places in the Savannah-Chatham public schools and 2,816 who outshine all the others went to the gifted program.

Thirteen percent of the district’s kindergarten through eighth-grade population is considered gifted. Somewhere along the way someone recognized that they had exceptional creativity or outstanding math and reading ability; and their grades and test scores backed it up.

“Gifted used to be the top 1 to 2 percent — the prodigies,” said Gifted Teacher Specialist Debbie Burnette. “But the program has been expanded to include highly talented and motivated kids in many areas. We look at intellectual ability, grades, creativity and motivation. The students in the gifted program may be two or three grade levels ahead or they may be teacher pleasers and creative thinkers.”

Being among the talented few who are labeled gifted is important. Identification begins in kindergarten and some parents are emphatic about getting their child in with the gifted crowd. Those children receive special instruction by specially trained teachers designed to build on their strengths and challenge them to go above and beyond academically. Some gifted middle grades students are all grouped in advanced level math and language arts classes. Some are given more challenging class work and alternative assignments. Being identified as gifted affirms that a student is smart and gives them a reason to feel special and motivated to learn. The elementary schoolchildren who get pulled out of their regular classes for gifted enrichment services are the envy of all those left behind.

“Everybody knows about the gifted class and they all want to be in it,” said gifted Thunderbolt Elementary fifth-grader Patreneii Polite. “They think we get to do better stuff than them.”

At Hesse Elementary about 200 of the 1,000 students enrolled at the school receive gifted services. In Tara Wood’s gifted third grade class they curled up on sleeping bags and blankets, munched cookies and read the books they had written on Georgia’s native animals. Her students come to her on hour every day for advanced lessons. It is a time when they can work in small groups, ask deep questions and research and discuss the answers.

“It helps keep them motivated,” Wood said. “My kids love coming to class and they are usually excited and engaged.”

During their unit on wildlife they researched animal adaptations, habitats and diet and compiled what they found in books. Jenna Afifi was wrapped up in a fuzzy pink blanket thumbing through her book on sea otters, which she had neatly illustrated with crayons.

“They used to be almost extinct,” she said, biting the head off an animal cracker.

But being gifted in Savannah-Chatham public schools doesn’t always mean you get hours of advanced instruction and clever lessons with cookies.

A recent audit of the program revealed that some students aren’t getting their fair share of gifted services. In many instances throughout the district students have not received the proper amount of gifted instruction because gifted teachers were assigned to other duties or children had to skip gifted class as a punishment.

According to the report, auditors visited several schools where gifted lessons were cut short because they conflicted with an assembly or field trip. In many cases the classes are cancelled because the gifted teachers are also assigned test coordinating duties or because the students have to prepare for standardized testing.

Auditors found that some classroom teachers do not know how to modify their lessons to meet the needs of students who may be gifted in one subject area and not another.

But perhaps most alarming is the number of children who have never received services because they have not been identified.

Of the public school system’s 2,816 gifted elementary and K-8 students, 54 percent are white. However, whites make up just 27 percent of the public school population. Black students, who make up 58 percent of the public school population, account for just 31 percent of the gifted program enrollment.

The disparity may stem from the fact that so many of the district’s black students are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Disadvantaged students who are gifted aren’t always easy to identify. Precocious kids from the inner city have been written off as disrespectful instead of identified as intellectual. But more often than not, their potential is overlooked because it is hidden within their standardized test scores.

“Many of our children do exceptionally well in math and reading, but their vocabulary is just not as extensive,” said Thunderbolt Elementary Gifted teacher Jill Lepo-Wieniewitz. “So they’ll score a 90 in comprehension and a 60 in vocabulary and their composite score doesn’t reflect their ability.”

Over the last four years the district has attempted to increase the number of gifted students from disadvantaged schools by using a growth potential delivery model in inner-city schools. Students whose standardized test scores come close to meeting the criteria for gifted services are placed in classes that work to build on their strengths and weaknesses so they can fully qualify. Thunderbolt is one of the three schools growing talented students into the gifted program.

“There are more gifted kids out there who are not identified,” Lepo-Wieniewitz said. “It’s best to catch them when they’re younger, before their creativity is stifled. They get less creative as they get older because someone is always telling them what to do and when to do it and chipping away at their independent thinking skills.”

Fifth-grader Elena Parker has been in the gifted program at Thunderbolt for four years. She and her classmates were looking at slides of cells under microscopes and trying to determine if they were from plants or animals. Elena carefully drew a picture of the bamboo cane cell she was eyeing.

“I’ve never seen bamboo before, except on TV, and on this slide,” she said. “It looks neat.”

Tywan Gilbert was looking at something he had never seen before either — a pond specimen called radiolaria.

“I would say it’s an animal because the cells are circular,” the fifth-grader said.

“I’m a smart guy. I know because I get to come to the gifted class. That’s a good feeling.”